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o accommodated without hindering the complaint process, MATT believes the complainant's desire to have a support person of his/hercholce present during the process should be fadlitated. . . MATT's diSCussions around how best a city-sponsored, but community-based, advocacy program could function in the new complaint system resulted in several recommendations to retain elements from the existing HRSS system and some suggestions for potential changes. MATT agreed that its charge was not to develop recommendations for the future role of the HRSS advocates. Instead, it acknowledged as an overarching issue the fact that the entire police complaint system was in transition, which will require all the entitles that interface with the system to revisit their procedures. MATT's comments on advocacy are intended to . help guide such future conversations and any resulting decisions. . . Regardless of whether HRSS advocates continue to be directly involved in supporting people with police complaints, MATT recognized that the Human Rights Program has the history and track record as a safe access point for complainants. As such, the. HRSS has an essential role to play in educating those who contact the Human Rights Office about the new system and shepherding them to the Auditor's Office. Their encouragement and reassurance about the safety, neutrality and fairness of the oversight system will be critical to establishing public trust in the complaint process. MATT agreed that at a minimum, it would be vitally important for the HRSS staff and volunteers to help inform the community about the new complaint intake system and oversight mechanisms. ,Some MATT members had concerns that continuing to use HRSS advocates in the new complaint process could create redundancies with the Auditor's Office responsibilities. However, members also ') recognized that the existing HRSS infrastructure and volunteer base is an aSset that can be utilized by . the .Auditor's Office to provide additiona.l, personalized support to complainants. MATT did not recommend the initiation of a. secondary advocate system. Instead, it suggested that to avoid future confusion around expectations and practices, a set of clearly defined procedures should be developed between the Auditor, the Chief 'of Police, .and the Human Rights Program to' establish how the advocates interface with both the Auditor's Office during complaint intake and a'lternative resolution options, and with Internal Affairs for complaints undergoing investigation. Once a working agreement is developed, a review of the city code establishing the Advocate Response Team (Section 2.280) is recommended to ensure that the code conveys the necessary authority for advocates to assist with ponce complaints as decided. MATT discussed several suggestions for possible improvements to the advocate program'. One apparent service gap is that HRSS advocates have no specified support responsibilities once a formal complaint is fil~d with Internal Affairs. MATT recognized that the internal investigation process can be the most intimidating and. confusing for ~omplain.ants. It was reaffirmed that a clear" delineation of roles, with attention to the structured use of advocates during the formal complaint process, would be beneficial in the' new system. A model similar to the Paso a Paso program at the Municipal Court, where a small pool of specially trained HRSS advocates are available directly to court personnel, should be considered. This would allow auditor's office staff to contact advocates directly, streamlining access for complainants to advocates who can best meet their needs. It also establishes direct communication between' the auditor's office staff and the advocates to avoid redundancy' in services, assure consistency in information -provided, and work coUaboratively to improve se:rvices. Specialized trajning could be offered not only to .existing HRSS advocates, but to others in the social service community so that they have a working knowledge 'of the complaint process to 'assist their clients, and if desired, could become an HRSS advocate assigned to t,he Auditor's Office. P;:InA 1:\